


My First Friend, My Enemy

by breezefall, hauntedbyangels



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Banter, Coran Coran The Gorgeous Man, Coran Rants™, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Gay Keith, Gay shenanigans, General tomfoolery, Hamilton acting au, Hijinks & Shenanigans, M/M, Not a crack fic, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Pining!Keith, background mover, background shallura - Freeform, bi lance, non-binary Pidge, personified rover, slowburn, they're all pretty much in their twenties, we spent like an hour watching Eyes of the Mothman for this, we swear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-09-20 09:17:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9484637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breezefall/pseuds/breezefall, https://archiveofourown.org/users/hauntedbyangels/pseuds/hauntedbyangels
Summary: Defenders of Space, become Actors of Stage.In other words, Lance and Keith have been competing in roles for shows as long as either of them can remember when it comes to the world on stage. Finally, Lance beats Keith to the lead role in Hamilton, yet Lance still ends up having to work even more with Keith than he had anticipated.





	1. Chapter 1

 

He was certain that auditions had gone rather well, but when Lance was informed that the cast list had been posted a few days later, his heart raced in anticipation. God, he had tried _so_ hard to get in, all of that effort, all of those hours of panic, they would mean nothing if he didn't get the role. By the time he had made it to the lobby where the list was posted, his heart was racing in anticipation. There's a crowd gathered in front of the list, and Lance would be damned if he didn't see it for himself before he was told what he had gotten. He spotted Hunk in the crowd as well, face pulled tight with anxiety as he waited to get a good look.

That was the difference between the two of them, Lance supposed, Hunk was politely waiting for a turn, but this was war, and Lance would claw and fight his way to that list if it was the last thing he did.

After pushing through a few small her forms, he ended up in front of the list, breath caught in his throat.

_Alexander Hamilton-Lance McClain_

He took no time to throw his hands up in victory, a loud _whoop!_ escaping him as relief flooded his veins. He took another quick look at the list, eyes absolutely _radiating_ joy.

_Aaron Burr-Keith Kogane_

_John Laurens/Philip Hamilton-Hunk Garrett_

_Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson-Pidge Holt_

_Hercules Mulligan/James Madison-Thace..._

He stopped reading after that, knowing very well that he would learn who everyone else was soon enough. He pushed back through the crowd, a smile playing at his lips. As he found Hunk, he caught a glimpse of black hair and violet-gray eyes. He looked over for a moment as Keith made his way back from the cast list, looking slightly uncomfortable. Lance snorted to himself, Keith was probably uncomfortable with coming in second for once. It honestly made Lance puff his chest out further as pride flooded through his veins.

“Hunk!” Lance called out, the bigger boy turned to him with wide eyes. “ _You got the part!”_

Hunk’s eyes lit up in shock. “W-what?! Are you serious?!”

Lance nodded. “You're officially the Laurens to my Hamilton,”

Hunk couldn't help but run over and give Lance the biggest bear hug he could manage. Shay stood nearby with a shy smile.

“Who did you get?” Lance asked her after Hunk had set him down.

“Eliza,” She said quietly, the smile on her face said everything, and Lance couldn't help but give her a quick, tight hug before Hunk gave her a hug similar to what he had given Lance.

A moment later, Hunk turned back to Lance, face suddenly serious. “I know you're Hamilton, and she's Eliza, but I swear to god, if you hit on my girlfriend I will have your head on a platter,”

Lance laughed nervously, giving Hunk weak finger guns. “You got it bud,”

A moment later, Shay’s eyes lit up and she waved enthusiastically at someone behind Lance, he raised an eyebrow, tossing a quick look over his shoulder.

“Keith!” Shay smiled. Lance's heart sank and he frowned, making eye contact with Hunk for a moment. Sure, Shay and Keith had been friends since forever, but it didn't mean that either Lance or Hunk had to like the guy. He had always been distant and an asshole towards Lance.

“Hey Shay,” He heard Keith say. Lance turned to see the other boy approaching, a girl that Lance didn't quite recognize was next to Keith, tugging nervously at his sleeve as if to let him know that she was uncomfortable with the new situation.

“Congratulations on getting the part you wanted,” Keith said easily to Shay, giving her a quick hug. “Shay, this is Pidge,” he gestured to the small girl next to him, who had untamed butterscotch hair and large glasses perched on her nose.

“Hi,” Pidge said tightly.

“And what role did _you_ get?” Lance asked, cocking his head curiously with a smarmy smile.

Pidge looked over at him and then back to Keith. For a moment, they seemed to have a silent conversation. “Uhh, I'm Lafayette and Jefferson…”

“Wait, really?” Lance frowned. “I would have guessed Peggy or something,”

Pidge looked at the ground and then at Keith again as if pleading him to say something, he merely shrugged.

“I wouldn't have fit a role like Peggy,”

“Why not?”

“Lance,” Keith finally growled. “It's none of your business.” Lance stiffened considerably, sending a dirty look at the other boy. Keith had his arms crossed and was practically _radiating_ aggression.

“It's fine, Keith, I'm… not a girl?” Pidge said slowly. Lance’s face melted into realization.

“Oh! Cool, what pronouns do you prefer?”

“They/them,”

Lance nodded with a smile. “Awesome, it's good to meet you, Pidge!”

Pidge nodded, looking over at Keith with a frown. “He's not as much of an asshole as you made him out to be, Keith.”

Keith sputtered, face lighting up with an “angry” blush. “P-Pidge!”

Lance frowned, looking over at Keith with a glare. Of course mullet-head had been talking bad about him, what else was new? Lance still felt a slight sting at that discovery, but he brushed it off quickly, trying to make sure Keith wasn't aware of how much it bothered him.

It was obvious that the other boy was completely oblivious through his sputtering and complete inability to look Lance in the eye--which only served to fuel Lance’s annoyance.

“ _So_ ,” Hunk cleared his throat. “How should we celebrate?”

“Definitely the malt shop on 4th,” Lance said with a grin, nudging Hunk’s arm playfully.

“You two should come with us!” Shay said to Keith and Pidge. Lance shot Hunk a look, his enthusiasm fading a bit.

“Uh, I think I’ll pass,” Keith muttered, glancing off away from Lance's face. Pidge frowned, giving Keith a disapproving look.

“C’mon, Keith, I’m literally like your only friend, you need to get out more.”

Keith shuffled uncomfortably. “You’re not my _only_ friend,”

“I don’t think you can count Shiro as a friend, he’s your brother,”

“...Matt?”

“He’s _my_ brother, you can’t count him either,”

“Shay!”

“Took him long enough,” Shay muttered to Hunk. Lance snorted loudly. Keith’s face was flushed again and he was staring intently at the ground.

“My point is, you don’t have a lot, and having more couldn’t hurt,” Pidge said pointedly.

“Fine,” Keith bit out. “I’ll go.”

Lance rolled his eyes and sighed visibly but decided against saying anything. He wouldn’t ruin the other’s good time because of his petty rivalry. Yet, he didn’t have anything against ruining _Keith’s_ time, if even just a little bit.

~

Keith did not sign up for this. He didn’t sign up for being squished in between Lance and Pidge in the back of Hunk’s shitty 1997 Saturn, if this was what friendship was, he didn’t want it. Not at all. It hadn’t even been a question to who got shot-gun, they all knew Shay was the primary candidate. As for the back seat, Pidge should have been the one squished since they were the smallest but they were very persuasive when they wanted to be, and somehow, Keith had ended up in the middle, letting Pidge happily take the left-side seat.

It was almost bearable until Hunk took a sharp left turn, throwing Keith against Lance, who was even less pleased than Keith was to have the other boy practically on top of him. Lance jerked away as much as he could, shoving Keith back towards Pidge, who squawked angrily and punched Keith’s shoulder.

“F-fuck! Pidge, that hurt!”

“That’s what you get for falling on me,”

“Lance pushed me!”

Pidge winked and shoved him again. Keith swore loudly, grabbing for Pidge’s arm as he collided with Lance who really looked about ready to start slitting throats at that moment. Lance shoved Keith back, and Pidge smiled devilishly before fucking pushing him _again._

Lance seemed to catch on in that moment, which only proved to further Keith’s misery as he was suddenly being thrown between the two of them mercilessly. Pidge cackled evilly and eventually caught him rather than continuing their sick little game. At least Lance was smiling at this point as well, that was something that Keith could be thankful for--it was certainly better than the withering glares that he had been receiving until now. He was able to appreciate that smile for only a moment before he felt Lance shove him into Pidge.

“Fuck my life,” Keith muttered, still, Pidge wasted no time before shoving Keith back again. He half expected Hunk or Shay to notice the abuse he was going through, but instead they seemed rather involved in their own conversation, so they were dead to him.

~

By the time they had reached the malt shop Keith was bruised on both of his arms. At least, it certainly felt that way. He rubbed his arms tenderly while fixing Pidge and Lance with a glare as they chatted casually, Hunk and Shay were still oblivious to Keith’s suffering and were conversing between themselves. The gang made their way into the small malt shop and were lead to a booth in the corner. Hunk and Shay slid easily into the booth, their hands now linked. Pidge looked over at Keith with a smirk as they slid into the booth next, and Keith merely glared back, realizing that he was now being forced to sit next to Lance.

“Ladies first,” Lance said, gesturing for Keith to sit next, instead, Keith merely shoved Lance hard, sending the other boy toppling into the booth next to Pidge. After they were all situated, the waitress made her way over to the table to take orders. Lance naturally ordered a triple-chocolate, brownie batter malt with extra whipped cream on top. Pidge ordered a strawberry-vanilla shake, and Hunk and Shay elected to share a cookies n’ cream malt.

Keith ordered a smoothie.

“What the fuck, man?” Lance said in horror. “Why a smoothie? We’re in a _malt shop_ if you hadn’t noticed.”

“I’m lactose intolerant.”

“Oh…” Lance said, a bit dumbfounded. “Well, that makes sense then, I guess.”

“Yeah,” The silence that followed was almost unbearable. Hunk and Shay were still talking and seemed to be in their own little world. Not too much later, their orders came and a few casual conversations began, Keith mostly just listened, sipping his smoothie.

Once Lance and Pidge had mostly finished their milkshakes, Lance bumped their arm before slurping loudly and then shooting them a look. A moment later Pidge followed suit with an even louder slurp. Lance snickered before trying to slurp louder than Pidge, so forth a competition began until there was virtually nothing left to slurp up.

Keith swore he could feel a headache budding in his temple. Hunk and Shay had finally seemed to join the rest of them after the loud slurping had interrupted their conversation.

“So Pidge,” Lance started once their slurping competition had come to an end. “Did you audition for Lafayette? Or were you trying to get another part?”

“No, I actually wanted to be Alexander Hamilton,” They deadpanned. Lance’s mouth fell open.

“W-what? Really?!”

Keith couldn’t help but snort. Lance was really thick if he actually believed that.

“I’m pulling your leg,” Pidge said. “Yeah, I initially auditioned for Lafayette,”

“Oh,” Lance started with a bewildered laugh. “That’s cool,” Lance finger gunned.

Pidge stared at him for a second. “Are you by any chance Bisexual?”

“Yeah, why?”

Keith choked on his smoothie.

Lance looked over. “You okay bud?”

“Y-yeah,” Keith said through a fit of coughs. “I’m good,”

“Cool, I read somewhere that finger-guns is a universal Bisexual sign.” Pidge said coolly.

Lance laughed, raising his hands to finger-gun again.

Keith might have said something if his mind wasn’t screaming. He set down his smoothie and excused himself, trying not to trip as he got out of the booth and swiftly walked away to the bathroom. He locked in a stall and leaned his head back against the stall door.

He wasn’t so sure he could make it through this show anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

That night, after they had all finished with their outing to the malt shop, the group of actors headed back to the Altea for the meeting that was being held. It was so supposed to be a get-together to get to know the rest of the cast, and so they knew who they would be working with to put on the show. The director’s name was Coran, he was an interesting individual. He tended to use words that none of them quite understood and he was so obviously from the midwest.

Besides the painfully obvious Minnesotan accent, Coran was rather friendly and easy to get along with, not only that, he was a respected director, even if he was a bit wacky.

Coran had them all sit in the auditorium and say their names and parts. It was a bit elementary, but it was helpful since the cast was so large.

Lance was naturally sitting with Hunk and Shay, which sadly meant he was third-wheeling. Keith and Pidge were sitting nearby as well, so that helped with the third-wheel feeling, instead, he was fifth-wheeling. So he was thankful when Coran decided to get started, shushing everyone's conversations.

“Alright everyone, “ Coran started. “Let’s get started. You know, this reminds me of a time that I was travelling to Iceland and the plane ride started out quiet, I was sat next to people that I didn’t know of course, but as the long flight continued, the silence became something else, we began to talk and get to know each other. By the end of the flight I had discovered that there was far more to the faces around me, instead of strangers they all had their own lives and problems. So, now, I know you are all thinking, that you’ll never know everyone in this space who you’re acting besides, but every face has a story, so tonight we’re going to start out with some ‘get to know you games’.” Lance sighed, looking around at the room of people. He recognized a few faces from past productions, but there were many others that he did not recognize.

Coran started talking again. “So, I want you to get into groups of about five people, and try to find a group of people you don’t know.”

Lance stood up, looking around the room. There was a blonde woman he didn’t know, so he walked towards her a bit tentatively. “Hey,” He started when he was close enough. “Groupie?”

She shrugged, eyeing him curiously. “Sure, I’m Nyma,”

“Lance,” He responded with an easy smile. The two of them easily found a group from there on. There was one man with a scar across his nose and a puff of white hair and a prosthetic arm. The other two that joined them were pretty average looking compared to the other guy. Lance couldn’t help but find the scarred guy attractive, hell, the guy was practically ethereal.

“Hey you’re Lance, right?” He started.

Lance’s face lit up with a smile at being recognized. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

“I’ve seen you in some of Keith’s productions.”

Honestly, Lance came out to have a good time but he’s honestly feeling so attacked right now, “Oh. How do you know Keith?” Lance asked.

“He’s my brother,” Lance now figured that the guy was Shiro.

“So, you must be Shiro then?”  
“Yep.”

Once they had all found groups, Coran began to explain that they were supposed to be playing the game ‘two truths and a lie’ after they all introduced themselves.

“Okay, well, I’m Lance.” Lance started, looking at the rest of his group expectantly.

“I’m Rover,” One of the guys said. Lance frowned.

“Rover?”

“Yeah, it’s a nickname,” Rover explained. “My full name is Robert Vanwell but it makes me sound like an old man,”

“Nice, I’m Nyma.” The blonde haired girl said with a smile.

“Shiro,” Shiro introduced himself.

“Derek,” The other guy said.

“Okay, I’ll start,” Lance said. “Shit, that means I gotta think of something…”

“Yeah, that would be the point.” Nyma pointed out playfully.

“Okay, I have five siblings, Keith Kogane is my biggest rival, and I always play the drums when I play Guitar Hero™ with my siblings.”

Shiro didn’t even pause before saying “Definitely the Keith being your rival one is the lie.”

“Um, no?” Lance said with a frown.

“Really?”

“Why is that so hard to believe?”

Shiro shrugged. “I just think that Keith might mention if he had a rival,”

Lance pouted dejectedly. “Well, it’s the guitar hero one, I play the electric lead in that game…”

“Oh.”

“Well then,” Rover started. “I guess I’ll go… Um, I have two Xbox 360’s, I’m totally a furry, and I helped build a school in Africa last month,”

Everyone looked at each other for a moment before Lance piped in. “The school in Africa, obviously.”

Rover frowned. “What the _fuck_ , you think I’m a furry!?”

“With a nickname like that, it’s not too hard to believe.”

“It’s nice that you helped build a school in Africa,” Shiro said, trying to help the conversation move on.

“Thanks.” Rover said flatly.

Both Nyma and Shiro went by without anything too shocking, and then it was Derek's turn.

“Uh, people called me Sendak in high school, I really dislike cats, and I used to watch Avatar the Last Airbender religiously.”

“Who dislikes cats? That’s obviously your lie,” Lance said.

“Nope,” Derek said.

“Wait, what? How do you not like cats? This is sacrilege.”

“Do you really think that I used to watch ATLA religiously?”

“Um, who didn’t watch that show religiously?” Lance narrowed his eyes. “Suddenly, I don’t trust you very much,”

Derek just rolled his eyes. “Okay, moving on,”

After they had finished with that group, Coran had them all transition to new groups and get to know a few more groups of people before calling them all back to their seats to reconvene.

~

Meanwhile, Keith was exhausted listening to all of these stupid and random facts about people. He wasn’t particularly thrilled that he had to go around from group to group to talk to a bunch of strangers, it was his least favorite activity when it came to theater.

Keith was currently sitting in a group with Allura, Rolo, Thace, and a guy named Zachary who apparently used to get called Zarkon a lot when he was younger? Keith had to admit he hadn’t particularly been listening.

The woman, Allura, was talking now. “Coran is my uncle, my dad is dead, and I own five cats.”

Keith merely stared at her. She was really casual about all of those facts, and admittedly, he had no idea which one was supposed to be the lie.

“Uh, Coran being your uncle, you guys look nothing alike.” Rolo said. He had a point, seeing that Coran had that ridiculously orange hair and Allura looked like a goddess compared to the director.

“Nope, I only have one cat,” Allura said, her words were coated with a light accent. After that Keith knew he had to come up with something. He thought about it for a moment before deciding that he might as well horrify everyone else.

“I’m an orphan, I lived alone in a shack in the desert for a year, and I’m part of a cult.” Keith deadpanned.

“You’re obviously not part of a cult,” Allura started. “I know what cult members look like.”

Everyone else in their small group was gaping at them. “But, that means you lived in a shack for a year?” Rolo asked.

“Yup,” Keith responded. The group fell silent after that, no one really wanting to ask any further questions.  

It wasn’t much longer before they were going to sit back down with their various friends. Keith rubbed his eyes, feeling tired from socializing.

Coran was getting ready to talk again, looking around at his group of actors with a smile. “Well, I think this is going to work out just fine. You all seem to be connecting very well. Soon enough you’ll all be up to some tomfoolery with each other. I can’t wait to see what shenanigans you come up with during our production. You know, this reminds me of the time I decided that going to law school would be in my favor. My father worked as a lawyer, and I was expected to follow in his footsteps. I hadn’t quite discovered my passion for directing yet, but this was an important development that led me to where I am today. In law, there are so many rules and things you must learn to defend your clients. There was case that my father was assigned to where he had to defend someone who was obviously guilty, which lead to a lot of drama, yadda yadda, so on and so forth. But because of this, my father bonded deeply with other lawyers and truly discovered the power of teamwork. I remembered these stories fondly when I decided to follow in his footsteps, I expected to work as a tight team with my fellow students. Little did I know how competitive law was, and how little room there was for true friendship. In short, I dropped out and went into theater, and when I was in theater I met my closest friends and that’s where I discovered that even if my father had found friendship and teamwork through law, that wasn’t the only way to find these things, and so here we are today, working together like a pack of wild animals. I’m proud of you young souls.” Coran spoke rather quickly when he told a story and Keith was half-listening, hardly following along.

He leaned over to Pidge. “What did that even mean?”

“Something about the power of friendship and teamwork I guess?”

Keith took a deep breath. “And here I thought it was a warning to not to go into law or something.”

“Well, that’s all for tonight folks!” Coran said. “I expect to see you all bright and early for our first read-through tomorrow!”

Keith groaned. “Let’s go Pidge,”

Pidge nodded, yawning a bit before standing and walking towards the door, Keith in tow. Lance wasn’t far behind, catching Keith’s shoulder before he could make his way through the door. Keith yanked away from Lance, turning to glare at the other boy.

“What do you want?” Keith growled.

Lance frowned. “I can’t believe you don’t talk about me,”  
“...what?”

“We’re rivals!”

“Uh, we are?” Keith asked. Lance looked exasperated and a bit angry.

“You know, Lance and Keith, neck and neck?!”

“I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who even thinks that, Lance.” Keith pointed out a bit flatly before turning back to leave. He and Pidge had to catch the Metro back and he didn’t want to miss the next train. “Let’s go.”

They walked away, leaving Lance looking dejected and pouting in their wake. Keith shook his head and let out a sigh, who even had rivals? Lance was such a child. Except he was also extremely attractive and cute when he was acting that way. Keith gritted his teeth, trying to shove those thoughts out of his mind. He did not need this when he was going to have to be working close with Lance for the entirety of the show.

Pidge seemed to notice the shift in Keith’s mood and bumped his shoulder. “What’s up?” They asked.

“Nothing,“ Keith muttered unconvincingly. “I’m fine.”

“You’re thinking about _Laaaaance_ , aren’t you??” Pidge teased.

Keith groaned, barely resisting the urge to hit his head against the nearest pole. “Shut up,”

“You’ve got it so bad,”

Keith stared ahead as they continued to walk through the dark night. It was kind of cool out and the stars were shining brightly above them. Pidge shot him an expectant look, raising an eyebrow as they waited for a response.

Keith let out a wistful sigh. “I know,”

He wouldn’t be surprised if Lance could hear Pidge cackling from all the way back at the theater.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all, we're back at it again with another chapter of this train wreck (we have no idea where we're going with this?)  
> We really appreciate all the positivity we've received from you guys so far! Thank you!!  
> If you want to scream stuff at us (we will scream back) @breezefall.tumblr.com and @hauntedbyangels.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> low and behold, the chapter we spent an hour watching Eyes of the Mothman for

That night--or morning, if they were being specific--long after the theater meeting had finished, Keith and Pidge sat idly on their couch. Pidge had opened the documentary _Eyes of the Mothman_ and was watching it intently as Keith typed away at a new blog post for their blog. Keith likely would have been more interested in it if he hadn’t already seen it when it came out five years ago. It was background noise to him while he wrote--Pidge on the other hand, was utterly intrigued every time it was on.  

Usually writing about their theories was easy, but tonight, Keith couldn’t help but feel a bit distracted as he wrote, since when had Lance’s smile been so attractive? It was frustrating, who in their right mind gave that boy permission to be so alluring?

“Hey, Pidge--”

“Shh!” Pidge snapped. “They’re talking about Chief Cornstalk’s murder and the curse!”

“Right…” Keith looked over at the screen, really trying to pay attention, but his mind was somewhere else completely. He had important things to think about, like the way Lance’s eyes sparkled and reminded him of the ocean on a cloudy day. Also, he wondered how Lance had come out so easily when Pidge had asked, it had taken him nearly three years to come out to Pidge, who had practically been his best friend forever. Sure, they had totally known that he was gay long before he told them, but they had never pushed him to say anything about it, rather they had waited until he was comfortable to come out on his own accord.

“Okay, what were you saying?” Pidge asked after a bit, tearing their eyes away from the screen. Keith shrugged.

“Just, how were you so forward about Lance being bi?” Keith asked, a bit uncomfortably. “I’m hardly out to anyone besides you and Shiro, it--just how were you so casual about it?”

Pidge shrugged. “I was just wondering, plus Lance seemed like someone who would be pretty comfortable with being asked.”

“Ah,” Keith replied flatly.

“Also, you’re about as socially competent as a walnut, so if I didn’t ask, who would?”

“Rude.”

Pidge snickered, reaching over to take the laptop from Keith before reading over the sad amount of words Keith had written over the past hour or so.

“Wow, this is pathetic,” They said, “You’ve been working for like an hour.”

Keith shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about other things.”

“Don’t hurt yourself.”

“Haha, very funny,”

Pidge stuck out their tongue. “Seriously though, you haven’t been this distracted in ages, what’s up?”

“I think you know what’s up,”

“Oh ho ho? You’re thinking about _Laaaaance!”_

Keith groaned, draping his arm over his face dramatically. “Why does that asshole have to be so cute? It isn’t fair,”

Pidge clicked their tongue disapprovingly. “Keithy boy has a crush,”

“Did you know that we’re rivals? Like, when was this established?”

“You’re rivals?” Pidge frowned.

“Apparently, Lance was being all pissy about me not mentioning him? I wasn’t aware that I was supposed to talk about him,”

“What do you mean? You talk about him all the time?” Pidge actually looked a bit perplexed, Keith groaned again, his crush must have been so painfully obvious to everyone but Lance.

As Pidge typed away at the post that Keith had started, he flopped down against the pillow and restarted the documentary.

“If this continues, another ice cream incident is in order,” Keith pouted.

“Oh god, not again!”

~

There were many reasons to why Lance had decided to go into acting. He loved the feeling of being on stage, the slight nervousness and energy that came along with being under a spotlight, and he loved feeling like the entire world had it’s eyes on him in that moment when he was something bigger than himself.

It was fun, to work together with a group of people to watch their performance come together, he loved knowing that he was apart of something so amazing. His life had revolved around creating masks and illusions. There were times when he loathed his ability to create lies, but when it came to a stage, a theater full of people, it was beautiful how real those lies became.

Then there were the times when over his shoulder he would hear whispers of ‘it wasn’t that good anyway’. Lance tried to ignore the negative feedback, but it tended to hit him right where he was weak and embed itself into his heart. Sticks and stones may break bones, but words like that had hurt him more than anything in his life.

Maybe that’s why he was so upset when he had learned that Keith didn’t even consider Lance to be on the same level as him when Lance had tried _so damn hard_ to be good enough to act beside Keith fucking Kogane.

And then Keith had looked at him like that and brushed Lance off like he was nothing. He wondered if Keith had even tried to have a good time with them earlier that day, when Pidge wasn’t trying to break the tension, it had been thick enough to cut with a knife.

Lance groaned, rolling over to lay on his back as he stared blankly at the ceiling. Stupid mullet-head, why did he have to be _so perfect?_ Why did Lance feel so inferior? He was the one who had gotten the lead after all, not Keith, so why did he still feel like so much less?

Lance closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Tomorrow would be better, he would make it better. As he drifted off into sleep he promised himself that he would _not_ let Keith ruin his day.

It was as good of a start as anything.

~

“Pardon me, are you Aaron Burr, sir?”

Keith turned around with a flinch, hearing Lance’s voice so close to his ear. He certainly had not slept enough after the Mothman documentary had finished. “What?” Keith bit out.

“Oh sure, sir, I’m Alexander Hamilton, I’m at your service, sir, I have been looking for you,”

Keith frowned. “Okay…?”

“I heard your name at Princeton, I was seeking an accelerated course of study, when I got sort of out of sorts with a buddy of yours, I may have punched him, it’s a blur, sir, he handles the financials,”

“Lance, can you not?”

“Yes! I wanted to do what you did graduate in two and join the revolution he looked at me like I was stupid, I’m not stupid, so how’d you do it? How’d you graduate so fast?”

Keith merely sighed. “I did not sign up for this--”

“You’re an orphan of course, I’m an orphan, god I wish there was a war--”

“Lance, _what the fuck?”_ Keith hissed, recoiling from the other boy. Lance just frowned.

“Dude, calm down, I’m _practicing,_ ever heard of it?”

“J-just stop, you’re being annoying,” Keith snapped. “Go practice with someone who actually cares,”

“My dude, this is literally our first song together, calm yourself. Also, have you even listened to the soundtrack?”

Keith shrugged, stepping further away. “Yes, once or twice,”

“Once or twice?”

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

Lance sighed dramatically and shook his head. “Oh, Keith, my dude, mi amigo, one or two times is not _nearly_ enough.”

“I didn’t know if I would get in our not, there was no use in memorizing the soundtrack when I wasn’t sure that I would be part of the show,” Keith said flatly.

“What do you mean you ‘weren’t sure you’d get in’? You _always_ get into shows! Hell, I was _sure_ I would lose the lead to you again.”  
Keith stared blankly at Lance for a moment. “W-well, there was a lot of good competition for this show--so, you know… I didn’t want to get my hopes up,”

“Oh… well, either way, Hamilton is an amazing show and you should have the soundtrack memorized regardless.” Lance crossed his arms, staring Keith down stubbornly.

“Right,” Keith replied unconvincingly, looking anywhere but at Lance. Where the hell had Pidge run off to anyway? His prayer was answered one way or another when he spotted Shay and Hunk walking over towards them. Lance smiled widely at Hunk, punching his shoulder.

“Hunk, can you believe that Keith has only listened to the soundtrack like twice?” Lance asked loudly, shooting Keith a look. Hunk shrugged.

“Whatever works for him, not everyone needs to be constantly listening to it like you, Lance.”

Keith snorted. Lance glared over at him.

“You’re supposed to be on my side, Hunk!” He whined while Keith couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“Not everything is a competition, Lance.” Hunk said a bit tiredly. “Just let Keith be, I’m sure he doesn’t need any extra stress from you hounding him all the time,”

Keith nodded in agreeance. “Yeah Lance, stop getting on my case,” He tried to make his words sharper, but they just came out dull and flat. He was so tired and really didn’t want to deal with this today, especially not with Lance constantly trying to provoke a reaction from him.

“Now, now, boys,” Coran said, appearing behind them. Keith cringed, he hadn’t even noticed the director’s presence until right then. He knew that Coran was very big on friendship and teamwork, and he would be especially pushy since Lance and Keith’s roles were so hand-in-hand. “You two need to start getting along a bit more, you’ll have to work together a lot for this show, and I expect that you’ll get past whatever indifferences you two have for our production.”

Keith and Lance nodded a bit too quickly, trying to diffuse the incoming rant they both knew was going to happen. For a moment, it looked like Coran might just walk away, but then he looked between the two of them suspiciously.

“Now listen up, there was this one time--”

Keith groaned, Lance’s shoulders drooped in defeat.

“I was studying abroad in Australia of all places, I was there for about three years of my life, that’s where I got the accent, well, I like their accent enough to obtain it after three years through endless rigor and practice. I was just like you once, young, indifferent, and going out with my friends and getting completely schnookered, but as I grew and gained experiences, I moved past that part of my life. Now, back to Australia, where I got my fabulous accent. While I was abroad in Australia, I got stranded in the desert while observing wildlife, later I was told I shouldn’t have survived that night, but I learned so much, and I would most _definitely_ recommend it. So here’s whatcha gotta do: I was out late observing animals in their natural habitat, like the predators on the hunt I stalked my prey, observing from afar to get these notes for a zoology class. Now, it wasn’t required that I go out and get stranded in the desert for this class, but I was young and craving an adventure, so I thought, here I go, I shall become one with wildlife to further my understanding of the world of animals that I was studying so vigorously. Quite an adventure it was, and through it, I watched how packs of animals worked together, and how terrifying and majestic they could be when they were a team. They had a deep emotional bond that was beyond any human understanding, working as one. Never in my life had I been so touched by such a connection, and I’m back here today to share that knowledge with you. Do you boys understand?”

“Yes Coran,” They said in unison, having zoned out about halfway through the rant.

“Good, now, gather up in the auditorium in the next five minutes so we can get started!”

With that, Coran walked away happily checking in on other’s as he went. Keith gave Lance a sidelong glance as he watched their director leave.

“Truce?” He asked. “So we don’t have to endure another one of those?”

Lance nodded in agreement. “Please, I don’t think I could stay awake through another lecture,”

“Same,”

“Then it’s a deal.”

Lance stuck out his hand, waiting for Keith to do the same. After a moment of hesitation, Keith gripped Lance’s hand tightly as they shook on it.

Perhaps this would be better than either of them had thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to scream stuff at us (we'll scream back) @breezefall.tumblr.com and @hauntedbyangels.tumblr.com is the place to be ;)))
> 
> Also, we started a blog called divinealiencommunicators.tumblr.com bc the Mothman documentary inspired us to search for the truth ™


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which sweater socks are very important

**Group Chat: Hamilton: Legendary Performers**

**SpaceBird has added BestBiEmployee, FunkyHunky, LiteralSunshine, and Keith to Hamilton: Legendary Performers.**

**SpaceBird:** dearly beloved

**SpaceBird:** we have gathered here today, 

**SpaceBird:** to bear witness to the union of 

**SpaceBird:** wait for it

**SpaceBird:** socks and sweaters????

**SpaceBird:** loOK AT HOW FUZZY THESE SOCKS ARE

_ SpaceBird has sent thnkyoukeith.jpg  _

**SpaceBird:** that’s all

**FunkyHunky:** those are really cute wtf

**Keith:** ur welcome Pidgeon

**BestBiEmployee:** why is your name just keith??? 

**BestBiEmployee:** also i want those socks asap

**Keith:** do you have a problem with my name or??

**BestBiEmployee:** yesp,, it so boringgg

**Keith:** rude

_ LiteralSunshine has sent thankskeith.jpg _

**LiteralSunshine:** lookie!! He bought me orange ones, we should both wear them to rehearsal Pidge!!

**BestBiEmployee:** ...keith i feel left out

**Keith:** Hunk, want a pair?

**FunkyHunky:** hells to the yes

**BestBiEmployee:** D:

**Keith:** what color? I have yellow, blue, red, pink, and black left

**BestBiEmployee:** can i have the blue ones??? :D

**Keith:** nvm the blue ones just burned, but I still have yellow, red, pink, and black :  )

**FunkyHunky:** yellow pls!!

**Keith:** got it ;)

**BestBiEmployee:** i’m hurt??

**SpaceBird:** Keith is so giving, so kind,,,

**LiteralSunshine:** Hunk you have to wear them to rehearsal with us!!

**FunkyHunky:** kk bby ;)

**Keith:** my work here is done,

**BestBiEmployee:** …

**BestBiEmployee:** sweater socks are dumb anyway,,

**SpaceBird:** gASP

**Keith:** :O   
**LiteralSunshine:** yOU TAKE THAT BACK

**FunkyHunky** : I need a new best friend,,

**BestBiEmployee:** i hate all of you.

**SpaceBird:** well, if you’re all finished with the sweater sock discourse, there’s a reason why I summoned you all here today,,

**Keith:** o?

**SpaceBird:** sooo my brother works at this arcade that just opened,,,

**SpaceBird:** and since the milkshake outing was such a success

**Keith:** but was it really

**SpaceBird:** i thought we could all go to the arcade together!!

**SpaceBird:** shut up keith, 

**BestBiEmployee:** i would agree to go, but my feet are too cold without thosE DAMN SWEATER SOCKS

**BestBiEmployee:** i don’t think i can go on,,,

**Keith:** tragic

**SpaceBird:** just give him the socks Keith

**Keith:** never

**BestBiEmployee:** ;(((

**SpaceBird:** He’s really smiling like an idiot about this, so don’t feel too offended Lance

**Keith:** lies

_ SpaceBird has sent lookatthatsmile.jpg _

**Keith:** I feel betrayed

**BestBiEmployee:** fake obviously, ive never seen my rival, the emo, smile

**Keith:** rival?? I see no rival in this chat, only those who are bETTER THAN YOU

**BestBiEmployee:** U KNOW WUT KEITH

**Keith:** sorry, i can’t hear you over the sound of superiority,,

**SpaceBird:** ah yes, young love

**BestBiEmployee:** >:(

**Keith:** love??? I think you mean LOATHING

**BestBiEmployee:** UNADULTERATED LOATHING FOR YOUR FACE

**Keith:** YOUR VOICE

**BestBiEmployee:** YOUR CLOTHING

**BestBiEmployee:** LETS JUST SAY, I LOATHE IT ALL

**Keith:** EVERY LITTLE TRAIT HOWEVER SMALL MAKES MY VERY FLESH BEGIN TO CRAWL

**BestBiEmployee:** WITH SIMPLE UTTER LOATHING THERES A STRANGE EXHILARATION IN SUCH TOTAL DETESTATION

**Keith:** IT’S SO PURE SO STRONG

**BestBiEmployee:** THO I DO ADMIT IT CAME ON FAST STILL I DO BELIEVE THAT IT CAN LAST

**Keith:** AND I WILL BE LOATHING

**BestBiEmployee:** LOATHING YOU MY WHOLE LIFE LONG

**SpaceBird:** aww i ship it :’)

**FunkyHunky:** ^^^

**BestBiEmployee:** u know wicked but not hamilton???

**BestBiEmployee:** like i’m impressed, but still, why 

**Keith:** Elphaba is my bae excuse you

**BestBiEmployee:** but like hamilton is so easy to memorizeeee

**Keith:** ah yes, with all of the rap and geniusly written music, perfectly easy to memorize

**BestBiEmployee:** no wonder i got the lead role

**Keith:** …

**BestBiEmployee:** salty??

**Keith:** whatever

**Keith:** at least i get to shoot you

**BestBiEmployee:** gASp

**SpaceBird:**  you could say,, shots have been fired,,,

**BestBiEmployee:** TOO SOON

**Keith:** ITS BEEN LIKE TWO-HUNDRED YEARS LANCE

**BestBiEmployee:** ASDFGHJKL;’

**SpaceBird:** okay,, back to ME

**SpaceBird:** Arcade outing?? Yes or no

**Keith:** eh

**SpaceBird:** did I fucking stutter Keith, I said ‘yes or no’ not ‘give me your sass’

**BestBiEmployee:** I’ll go, but I want those sweater socks

**FunkyHunky:** I'm in

**LiteralSunshine:** sounds like a plan :^)))

**SpaceBird:** Shay is my favorite btw

**Keith:** #betrayed

**LiteralSunshine:** eat it Keith B^)

**BestBiEmployee:** y do ur smileys have noses? I’m uncomfortable,,

_ LiteralSunshine has changed their name to :^) _

**:^):** how does this make you feel?

_ BestBiEmployee has left this chat _

**Keith:** finally, some peace and quiet

_ FunkyHunky has added BestBiEmployee to this chat. _

**Keith:** aaand it’s gone,,

**BestBiEmployee:** what’d i miss B)

**Keith:** :^) nothing :^) too :^) important :^)

**BestBiEmployee:** i just visibly shuddered

**Keith:** :^)))))))))) good

**SpaceBird:** keith check pms

  
  


**SpaceBird >>>>Keith**

**SpaceBird:** ur flirting style could use some work tbh

**Keith:** i have no idea what you’re referring to

**SpaceBird:** in denial?? Is that it??

**Keith:** no?? Just confused?? Also, why are you texting me? You’re literally in the next room

**SpaceBird:** i am very lazy,,

**SpaceBird:** aLSO

**SpaceBird:** we both know you like him

**Keith:** yes, but,, if I ignore it enough, will it go away??

**SpaceBird:** hoe don’t do it

**Keith:** maybe if I make fun of him more??

**SpaceBird:** oh my god

**Keith:** ;)))

  
  


**Group Chat: Hamilton: Legendary Performers**

**Keith:** lance, ur hair is funny

**SpaceBird:** goddammit keith

**BestBiEmployee:** at least i don’t have a fucking mullet

**Keith:** u got me there

**SpaceBird:** i’ll send you guys directions, meet at the arcade at 4:00 pm tomorrow??

**BestBiEmployee:** sure

**SpaceBird:** cool cool, ttyl

~

Lance looked between two different brands of blue sweater socks with a frown. Neither pair looked like the ones Keith had gotten Pidge and Shay. He would not be bested by goddamn socks. Why did this feel so important anyway? It wasn’t like Lance was hurt or anything, he didn’t need a pair of sweater socks to feel competent.

Lance sighed angrily, checking the time. He was supposed to meet everyone at the arcade in an hour, and here he was, debating which sweater socks to buy because some jerk with a mullet refused to give him a pair.

He set the socks down and headed for the door, he was  _ not _ this petty. 

~

When Keith was leaving his apartment he triple-checked that he had grabbed all of the sweater socks he had promised, including the blue ones for Lance. It would be a pleasant surprise for the other boy, who was most definitely not expecting to receive the blue sweater socks. He knew the chat had mostly been in good humor, but he felt kinda bad for discluding Lance from the promise of sweater socks, they were a wonderful thing after all. 

He and Pidge left the apartment not much later to head towards the arcade. Pidge was proudly wearing their green and white-striped sweater socks pulled up above their converse for the world to see. 

Keith was secretly wearing the red ones in his combat boots, not that he would ever admit it.

They were within walking distance of the arcade, so they left a bit early to give themselves time to get there before everyone else. Pidge was babbling on passionately about their part and how excited they were to roast Lance as Jefferson. Keith, on the other hand, was dreading being on the other end of that, Lance would mostly be roasting him.

It would be fine, fun even if they could get past their differences.

Maybe that’s why he had grabbed the blue sweater socks, as a peace treaty.

When they got to the arcade, Pidge disappeared inside to find their older brother. Keith waited in the lobby for the others, knowing that once Pidge and Matt got talking, there would be no shutting them up.

The door dinged as someone entered, and Keith briefly glanced over to find Lance slipping into the lobby, hands shoved into his pockets and a frown on his face. Normally, Keith might’ve tried to say something, but instead, he immediately looked away from the other boy, finding the carpet to be  _ very _ interesting.

Suddenly the sweater socks felt really,  _ really _ stupid, and Keith was definitely not one to bash the magic of sweater socks.

“Hey,” Lance finally said, it was a weak attempt, but Keith would take it. He looked over at the other boy with a small nod of acknowledgment.

“Uh, hi.” Keith replied with perfect eloquence. Nailed it.

“Where’s Pidge?”

“Talking to their brother,”

“Oh, nice,”

Keith nodded. “Yep.”

“Lance!” Pidge yelled, skidding back into the lobby. “Did Keith give you the thing yet?”

“The thing?” 

Keith drew a finger across his throat, threatening them with imminent death if they said another word.

“Guess not!” Pidge said, a bit too cheerfully, turning to walk away. “By the way, Matt got us a table that’s pretty close to laser tag, and he gave me a bunch of free tokens, but don’t tell his boss,” With that, they had disappeared back into the arcade, leaving Keith to stew in his own awkwardness.

“What’s the thing?” Lance asked.

Keith shrugged, looking away so he didn’t have to make eye contact.

_ “Keeeith,” _

“It’s nothing,” Keith said with a shrug. “And it’s really stupid.”

“I’m intrigued,”

“You sound like Pidge,”

Lance smiled, grabbing at the little gift bag Keith was carrying. “Is this it?”

“Fuck off,”

Lance peeked over into the bag, and his face instantly dropped. “Nevermind, I don’t care.”

Keith sighed, digging in the bag until he found the blue pair. He pulled them out and gave Lance a glare. “Are you sure? Because I could just return these,”

Keith swore that Lance teared up in that moment. “No, no! I want them!” He was smiling. It warmed Keith’s heart and he handed over the socks without a fight.

“You didn’t really think I wouldn’t give you a pair, did you?”

Lance shrugged. “Eh, I don’t really know you well enough to know,”

“Oh, right, sorry.” Keith bit his bottom lip and turned to watch the door for the others. 

“Thanks, though, these are great,” 

“No problem,” 

Lance sat down on the nearby bench and started taking his shoes off right there and then. Mumbling something about how hard he was gonna wear those socks. Keith had to resist hitting his head against the nearest wall, while it was kinda cute, it was also incredibly embarrassing.

His only saving grace was Hunk and Shay showing up a few minutes later. He managed to give Hunk the yellow socks with a straight face, while Lance was trying to fit his converse over the blue socks behind him. Keith had to take a deep breath before turning back to the other boy.

Lance had managed to get his shoes back on and was working on tying them, as he focused on his shoes, his tongue poked out of his mouth a bit in concentration.

Keith wanted to scream, it was so cute. The socks had either been the worse thing he could’ve done or the best, Keith couldn’t quite decide.

“Pidge said their brother got us a table close to laser tag,” Keith said weakly to Shay, trying to tear his eyes from the other boy as Lance bounded excitedly over to Hunk to show off the bright blue sweater socks.

“You’re blushing Keith,” Shay responded quietly.

“Nope, I’m not,” Keith immediately said.

“Your face is bright red,”

“Nooope.”

Shay laughed before leaning over to grab Hunk’s hand. Keith smiled a bit at the two of them before leading the group back to where Pidge was already lounging, talking to an older boy who looked scarily similar. 

“Hey Matt,” Keith greeted as he reached the table. Matt smiled a bit awkwardly.

“Hey Keith, how are you? How’s your brother?” 

Pidge rolled their eyes, draping an arm dramatically across their face. “You’re hopeless, Matt,”

“Shut up, gremlin,” Matt shot back snappily. “I’m talking to Keith, not you,”

Keith smiled. “I’m good, and so is Shiro, you should text him, I’m sure he misses you,”

Matt’s eyes lit up. “Yeah? Maybe I will,”

Pidge’s head hit the table a moment later, followed by a long groan. “Don’t encourage him,”

“Ignore them,” Matt said. “What’ve you guys been up to lately? I never thought I’d see you hanging out with anyone besides Shay and Pidge, Keith.”

Pidge snickered in the background, Keith flipped them off without even looking over. “Yeah, well I met some people through our latest production, and Pidge keeps arranging outings, so, here I am.”

“Well, it’s good to see you,” Matt smiled again. “Have fun, I should get back to my job.”

“See you later,”

“See ya!” With that, Matt walked away. Keith sat down across from Pidge with a frown.

“Why shouldn’t I encourage him to see Shiro? They’re friends?” 

Pidge nodded slowly. “You haven’t noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

“Matt’s been crushing on your brother for like, ever,” Pidge whispered, rubbing their forehead like they were trying to quell a headache.

Keith blinked, his face blank. “They’re friends…”

“Mhm, that’s what Shiro thinks, and Matt’s just a poor, pining idiot who’ll never get noticed.” Pidge narrowed their eyes at him. “Sound familiar?”

Keith paused, his eyes finding Lance instantly. “Oh shit, you right.”

“Keith,”

“Yeah?”

“Do not throw away your shot,”

“Did you just?”

“Yep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is our favorite chapter so far :^D  
> the best part of writing this fic is the intense amount of shameless musical references we can squeeze in.  
> If you want to scream stuff at us (we'll scream back) @breezefall.tumblr.com and @hauntedbyangels.tumblr.com is the place to be ;)))


	5. Chapter 5

“So, where do we go from here?” Keith asked Pidge lowly as he shot Lance conspicuous looks. Luckily, Lance was as much blind to the fact that Keith had it bad as Keith wished to be. Sadly, with Pidge’s constant inquiries and general nosiness, Keith was horribly aware of the fact that he looked at Lance a bit too long when they were in the same room, or felt nervous whenever the other boy approached him.

“You’re going to woo that boy so hard is what you’re gonna do,” Pidge said, bouncing their eyebrows suggestively.

“How?” 

“By listening to me, and not resorting to your usual awkward ways.”

“Rude?”

“No,  _ strategic,” _

“Then why do I feel attacked?”

“Sacrifices must be made in this war,”

“You’re so weird,” Keith said, rolling his eyes. 

“You’d be nothing without me,”

“Oh my god,”

“So, here’s what you’re going to do: Matt gave me a shitton of free tokens, so you and loverboy over there are gonna play some games, talk a little bit, and then get married, sound good?”

“Isn’t that kinda rushing things?”

Pidge shook their head and shrugged. “Is it rushing things if I count all of the months and months that you’ve been pining over him?”

“Touche,”

“Good, so we’re on the same page?”

“Sure…?”

“Now, go ask him to hang out,”   
Keith nodded, taking a deep breath and looking over to where Lance was chatting with Hunk and Shay. He stood slowly and walked over. 

“Hey, uh, Lance?” Keith started. “Pidge gave me some free tokens, if you wanna--uh play together, a game, that is.”  _ Nailed it. _

“Yo, sure!” Lance responded easily with a smile. “Whatcha wanna play?”

“Um, I’m not sure, wanna just walk around and see what there is?”

“That works for me!” Keith nodded before gesturing towards the arcade around them a bit awkwardly as to ask if Lance was ready to go. Lance smiled and took the lead, walking next to Keith, bouncing on each step with enthusiasm. Keith smiled shyly to himself. 

The arcade was all lit up with that typical slightly low-lighting and brightly flashing lights from the games. Eventually, after a few moments of looking around, Lance stopped with a gasp.

“THERE!” 

“What?”

“ _ Dance Dance Revolution _ , Dude we have to play!”

“Uh, I’m not really the best dancer.”

“Yet, you do musical theater? Come on, you can’t be all that bad, plus it’s just for fun anyway.”

“Ok then...”

They stepped forward towards the  _ Dance Dance Revolution _ dance pads. Keith reluctantly stepped on as Lance was practically bouncing up and down with excitement over the silly game. It was cute.

_ Dammit Keith, you are in so fucking deep. _

“Any song requests?” Lance asks. Keith shakes his head. He doesn’t really care, either way he’s going to be slaughtered by Lance, who seemed to give off this air of confidence that told Keith he was a good dancer.

_ Shit, shit, shit. _

Lance ends up picking some random K-pop song, Keith doesn’t have the slightest clue how Lance knows it, but he chooses it and steps back into position.

_ 3… 2… 1! _

Keith instantly feels overwhelmed and behind with all of the moves being thrown at him and he sort of moves and sort of just glares at the screen, hoping it will maybe stop or something. Lance is just smiling and nailing every fucking move--of course--eventually he looks over at Keith and starts singing along.  _ How the fuck…?  _

“How the fuck do you know the lyrics to this?” Keith asked over the music.

“I’ve listened to it an ungodly amount of times?”

“Fair enough,” 

Keith trained his focus back to the screen but his eyes kept drifting back to Lance, who now wasn’t even watching the screen, he just had the routine down, which Keith found slightly annoying, but it was also pretty cool.

Lance eventually glanced over at him with a smarmy smile. “You’re falling behind, mullet,”   
“Shut up,”

“I’m gonna win~”

“I told you that I wasn’t good at dancing!”

Lance stuck his tongue out, finishing the song with an almost perfect score. Keith pouted, stepping away from the dance pad. “I win!”

“That wasn’t even a fair game,”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Fine, well now  _ you  _ can pick a game, and then once we run out of tokens, we tally how many times we won, then the ultimate winner will be declared, and they get all of the tickets.”

“Fuck no, those are  _ my _ tickets. I’m not betting all of my tickets on a biased competition.”

“Scared you’ll lose?” 

Keith glared at the other boy, he was  _ so _ goddamn infuriating. “Fine, you’re on.”

“Alright, well it’s your choice, mullet.”

“Don’t call me that,” Keith said flatly before turning to look around the arcade. What could he  _ definitely  _ beat Lance at? It was right then when he spotted the racing game tucked in the corner. “That one,” He said, pointing. Lance’s face dropped.

“Fineeee,”

They made their way over the bike racing game, and Keith knew that he had this in the bag. There was no way he could lose at this game.

About five minutes later after shoving their tokens in and a bit of angry yelling at each other, Keith and Lance were going to choose another game, Keith smiling with victory.

“It’s one to one,” Lance muttered. “I’m still gonna win this,”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy,”

Lance glowered over at him. “Whoever can get the highest score in Galaga is our next duel.”

“Duel?” 

“You fucking know it, and I’m going to beat your ass so hard,” 

“In your dreams.”

~

They went about this for about awhile. The score was tied and they needed a tiebreaker, so they decided on skeeball. Keith was almost certain he could win this one, even if he thought it would be a pretty even fight, he was going to win those goddamn tickets.

Before the final match occurred, Keith and Lance went their separate ways to grab water and chow down on pizza. Keith slid into the booth next to Pidge, who was predictably scrolling through tumblr.

“How’s the wooing going?” Pidge asked, setting their phone down to meet Keith’s eyes. Keith shrugged, a small smile pulled at his lips.

“We’re about to duel to the death,” He managed to deadpan. Pidge rolled their eyes. 

“Just another story to tell at the wedding, I suppose.”

Keith laughed. “Oh my god,”

Pidge shrugged, snatching a piece of pizza and demolishing it in seconds. Keith yawned. 

“Maybe you should let him win,”

Keith froze. “What?”

“ _ Woo him, _ Keith,”

“No way in hell am I letting him win,”

“Keith,” Pidge started, setting their phone down and shifting themself to face him. “Lance is  _ super _ prideful, can’t you tell? If you beat his ass he’s going to be  _ so  _ butt sore about it, pun intended. So just consider… going easy?”

“But, Pidge! They’re  _ my _ tickets!”

Pidge sighed. “Their tiny pieces of paper Keith, do you really want those over Lance? After you’ve complained about him to me like  _ every night _ after rehearsals for  _ years?  _ I thought you were after a slice of dat ass, you’re not gonna get it if you can’t let go of your pride a  _ little bit, _ ”

“Are you done?” Keith asked, cheeks flushed.

“Yep,” With that, they picked their phone back up. 

“Yo, Keith, are you ready to have your ass handed to you?” Lance called over. Keith glared at him, suddenly filled with determination and rage.

“Good luck,” Pidge muttered as Keith stood up.

“I’m going to beat him,”

Pidge merely sighed, why did no one listen to them? “Alright,”

~

“Alright, whoever gets the highest score wins this whole thing,” Lance said. “No cheating,”

“How would I cheat?” Keith frowned.

Lance shrugged. “My little siblings used to run up the ramps and drop the balls in,”

“And you think I’m going to resort to running up the ramp?”

“Maybe, I don’t know what you would do to win,”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Let’s just get started so I can beat you,”

“Those be fightin’ words,”

Keith smirked. “Ready?”

“Whenever you are, mullet.”

“I said not to call me that,”

“Maybe if you got a better haircut I would respect that,”

“First of all: rude.”

Lance winked at him, then they put their tokens in and started. Lance started out by landing his first ball in the five-thousand slot. Keith frowned, rolling his eyes before aiming, and slinging his skee ball up the ramp. He also lands it in the five-thousand. 

It was all out war from there on.

They continued to score almost the same things, one time Lance would score a three-thousand and Keith a five-thousand, but then the next time they threw, Keith would score three-thousand while Lance scored five-thousand. It was infuriating. Every time he thought he might have pulled ahead, Lance caught up or pulled ahead with the next throw.

Soon enough it was the final throw, the score was tied. Keith looked over at Lance, inviting him to throw first, but the other boy shook his head.

“After you, Mullet,”

Keith rolled his eyes, shoulders bunching up in agitation. He took a deep breath before aiming, and throwing his last ball. He considered aiming for the ten-thousand, but to play it safe he had thrown it into the five-thousand slot to avoid the possibility of missing. Lance smirked at him before turning to his own lane and aiming for a moment before he slung the ball up the ramp.

_ Shit, he went for it. _

The moment of truth came when the ball hit the small ten-thousand slot, and for a moment Keith was  _ certain _ that it wouldn’t make it. 

Then it did.

Lance whooped loudly, dabbing in victory. Keith gaped.

_ What the actual fuck? _

“I winnnn~”

Keith sighed. “Congrats,”

“Now gimme all the tickets,” Lance said, with a huge smile spreading across his face. Keith tried to be mad, but Lance’s smile was just so endearing. He handed the tickets over without a fight.

“If you’re lucky, I might buy you something,” Lance said with a wink before running over to Hunk, waving the tickets above his head victoriously.

Keith sighed. He wasn’t nearly as upset about it as he should have been, he turned to find Pidge at his side.

“Thought you said you weren’t going to let him win,” Pidge said with a shit-eating grin.

“Maybe I had a change of heart?”

“Bullshit, he beat you fair and square.”

Keith shrugged. “I’m not even upset,”

“Wow... “ Pidge started giggling. “Are you in loveeeee?”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Shut up,”

~

Lance ran over, bouncing with excitement. “Jackpot,” He laughed, tugging Hunk along towards the counter. They counted the tickets with one of those weird machines that made eating noises as it counted the tickets, and it turned out that they could buy almost anything on the lower shelves.

“Shay, do you want something?” Lance called over. She walked over and found a stuffed orange fish. 

“This is cute,” She said with a smile. “You have enough to get everyone one,”

Lance smiled. “Wanna help me pick out colors for everyone?”

She nodded. “Of course!”

~

“Alright, present time!” Lance said as he and Shay made it back to the table. Pidge sat up immediately, looking for whatever they had gotten them. 

“Present?” They said in a slightly excited and strangled tone. Shay handed Pidge the green fish, they laughed. 

“It looks so derpy, I love it!” Pidge said.

Lance and Shay handed out the others until only the red one was left. Lance looked at it and then over at Keith with a slightly conflicted look. “Hmmm, I think I might just keep this one,”

Keith frowned, his bottom lip jutting out in a small pout. Lance immediately regretted it.

“Just kidding, joking!” Lance said quickly, tossing Keith the red fish, keeping the blue one for himself. “Revenge for the socks, of course,”

Keith caught the derpy-looking red fish and smiled. “So we’re even now?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Cool,”

Lance blushed a bit, looking away immediately, what the hell, why was that guy so cute? Lance shook his head, whatever, it didn’t matter.

“Should we head back then?” Hunk asked eventually, once everyone had received their plushies. The group nodded in agreeance, it was starting to get a bit late for a group of adults to be chilling in an arcade.

“I can’t wait to be connected to my own wifi,” Pidge mumbled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yoyoyo we're back at it again with another chapter, sorry for taking so long on this, we've both gotten incredibly busy in the past two months so we probably won't be updating as regularly as we used to but we'll get a chapter out whenever we can.  
> If you want to scream stuff at us (we'll scream back) @breezefall.tumblr.com or @hauntedbyangels.tumblr.com is the place to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all, we hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this! Let us know what you thought in the comments :D
> 
> Here's the full cast list in case you were wondering:  
> Alexander Hamilton-Lance McClain  
> Aaron Burr-Keith Kogane  
> Eliza Hamilton-Shay Balmera  
> George Washington-Takashi Shirogane  
> Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson-Pidge Holt  
> Hercules Mulligan/James Madison- Thace  
> John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton-Hunk Garrett  
> Angelica Schuyler-Allura  
> Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds-Nyma  
> King George III-Zarkon  
> Samuel Seburry- Sendak  
> Charles Lee- Rolo  
> George Eaker- Robert Vanwell “Rover” (furry?) (no. He just doesn’t like his name)(but that's a dog name) (it’s fine)  
> Matt does Tech  
> Coran is the director (he is also a very gorgeous man)
> 
> If you would like to scream at us @breezefall.tumblr.com and @hauntedbyangels.tumblr.com is the place to be ;)


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